The year is 1992.there is a concert in Rawa club. The audience is very much enjoying a band performance on stage. The band is Warfaze. The band appeared with some metal songs. A boy standing on one corner wearing Levi’s geans and a leather jacket was talent fully playing the guitar making the songs even more attractive. The boy is Ibrahim Komol. Now let’s get to know about the beginning of his band life, his feelings and some memories.

The story of a dream

The year is 1984. I am in class ten. I and my friends decided to form a band. So me, Nomu, Mir,Hellal and Rakib made the line up of the band. That’s why I learnt to play the band. At first we named the band ‘Wizard’ but later changed it to ‘Warfaze’ and thus the birth of ‘Warfaze’.

Past stories

Later in college Tipu and Babna joined our band. Our first show was in 1998 at Sonargao Hotel. At the beginning we would do cover songs, mainly our own ones.
Composition started in 1991. Now let me tell you the story behind that. Bamba had a show in Dhaka University, open air. Maksud vai suggested us to take part in it. But he told us that we could not go on stage without Bangla songs of our own composition. For us it was as if the sky had fallen on us. Courageously we started compositions of our songs. Our first composited songs were ‘Shadhikar’, ‘Ekti chele’ and ‘Koishor’. Other than that we also covered the song ‘Ashi ashi’ by Azam Khan in our own way. We received appreciable response from the audience. That
was our main debut. Although many see us as a rock band, I see us as a heavy metal band.

First accomplishment

That year I was preparing to go to USA. We contacted Sargum keeping our songs preserved and memorable. Although we had planned to make mix albums with the bands ‘Rock starta’ and ‘In Dhaka’ later we started to make our own single album. When our first album ‘Warfaze’ came to the market I was in USA. The funny thing is that for two months I could not listen to the songs of my own album. At that time Tipu parceled me a copy of the album. Those of us who were there were very anxious to listen to the songs of our album. When Tipu would tell us that people really liked our album, it would seem impossible.

Pages from the memory book…

Every year I would come to Bangladesh and would do shows, work with music. Now there is a memorable story I have to share. We had a show in Rawa club. There we came to see an astonishing scene. Twice the number of people who could enter was trying to get in. There was no way in. Then we went another way and crossed a wall. I still remember how one of us stood on top of the other to cross the wall.
Then it was time to move forward. We started our composition again. Sometimes we did shows. Then one day our new album ‘Obak Valobasha’ was out.
Although I could not see the popularity of these two albums from here, I did not miss the third chance. The name of the album was ‘Jibondhara’. ‘Dhupchaya’ and ‘Mounota’ these two songs from the album was zealously received. In ’96 Sumon joined ‘Warfaze’. Later Juwel joined us. I was pretty busy with the new line up when suddenly my younger brother died in a car accident. That’s why our work was put off for some time.

Anyways in ’98 the album ‘Oshamajik’ was out. And then drastic changes started in our lineup. Shanjoi and Fuad stepped out from music. Sumon also left ‘Warfaze’. Few days later Juwel joined ‘Miles’ and left ‘Warfaze’. Thus Shams, Kalam, Mijan, and Pijush were added to our lineup. Then in 2000 ‘Alo’ and in 2002 ‘Maharaj’ came to the market. Then after many reasons I also left ‘Warfaze’. But the heart wants what it wants and so I could not refuse when Sumon requested me to join his band ‘Orthohin’. At that time possibly this band held more opportunities for me. In 2007 I entered ‘Warefaze’ again while I was also in ‘Orthohin’. The album ‘Oshomapto’ was the outcome of all our efforts. If I had not seen its success may be I, myself would have been incomplete. On the other hand the new album of ‘Warfaze’ was almost complete which was soon to be released.

Thoughts about today

Presently many of the music generation that is band generation, is moving forward aimlessly which is not at all expected, although they have the quality and possibility. It may be that they are singing and playing well but they are only emphasizing heavy metal and thrash. But this is not acceptable. I think that if they are guided properly we can gain a lot from them.

Remainder

We should not lose our identity as the world is getting smaller due to technology. And in such case there is no alternate to commitment and honesty. Every day the music industry is being harmed by piracy. We can simply buy a good CD just by talking a little less on the phone. If one cannot have this much love and respect for the artist how can the music industry survive? We should protect ourselves from the misuse of technology and piracy.